Miami Schools Expands and Prepares for the 2006-2007 School Year
This school year
Miami Schools is opening four new
schools and several new facilities to cope with increased student enrollment for
the 2006-2007 school year.
The new schools
will cater to elementary, middle and high school students.
Miami Schools
has added
the Ronald W. Reagan High
School in the northwestern
part of the district. This is
an area that is expanding rapidly. The new high school will cover about 20 acres and house extremely modern facilities. The Ronald W. Reagan High School will have 250,000 square feet of classrooms, computer lab, an 800 seat auditorium,
a 700 seat cafeteria,
a Media Center and a gymnasium. Also on
campus there will
be a number of outdoor areas: fields for football, soccer, softball and baseball as well as basketball, tennis and racquetball courts.
The most innovative part of Miami Schools Ronald W. Reagan High School is that it is an academy based design. This means that ninth
grade students will be tested and surveyed to discover their
interests and areas of strengths and then be encouraged to select from three academies. The three academies on campus will be Cambridge Academy, Information and Communications Technology Academy, and the Classical Arts Academy. These academies will both have separate facilities and share common school facilities. This is part of Miami Schools continuing educational reform plan.
In the southern part of the district, Miami Schools will open the new Norma Butler Bossard Elementary School. The campus will cover 7.5 acres. The school will be equipped with a Media
Center, music and art centers, a cafeteria that will accommodate nearly all the students, a three story classroom building, bilingual rooms, a well equipped science laboratory, and a Wellness Center. The Wellness Center will be available for staff and student use. This school is named for Norma Butler Bossard, who had served as the Miami Schools language arts division head for many years.
Another innovation for the Miami Schools is the newly constructed David Lawrence, Jr. K-8 Center. The K-8 Center will be a world class facility that is adjacent to Florida International University. Miami Schools will work in conjunction with Florida International University to provide professional development for Miami Schools teachers and Florida International Universitys education majors. The K-8 Center will be able to house nearly
1,600 students. The
state of the art facility will include a Media Center, computer labs, art labs, and music centers. The K-8 Center will be home to the Johnson and Wales University nutrition and cooking workshops. These workshops are part of Healthy Eating/Healthy Choices, a grant the school received from Health Foundation of South Florida. The cooking workshops will be open to staff and parents.
The last addition Miami Schools is the Young Womens
Preparatory Academy. This is the first all female school to be operated by Miami Schools. The Young Womens Preparatory Academy will accommodate 450 girls in grades 6-12. The Young Womens Preparatory Academy will have a thorough educational curriculum that will develop the academic, personal and social skills of the students. The school aims to prepare its students for postsecondary education and the world.
Stacy Andell is a staff writer for Schools
K-12, providing free, in-depth reports on all U.S. public and private K-12
schools. Stacy has a nose for research and writes stimulating
news and views on school issues. For more information on Miami schools visit
http://www.schoolsk-12.com/Florida/Miami/index.html
Alternatives to Speed
Picture
the scene. I'm driving sedately
in my family
car across the desolate moors of Derbyshire, in particular the High Peak area of North West England, the far side of Macclesfield. It's
a long, fairly straight road, but there are some vicious bends in it,
and if you take them too fast you can end up in the ditch, your car a write-off. Maybe that's why some sections of the road have a 50 miles per hour speed limit. It's known as a dangerous place
to drive, and also fairly renowned for having more than its fair share of motorbike traffic. (It seems the 'Easy Riders' like the twists and turns and enjoy the risk.
They're asked not to: there are posters at intervals along the road warning them to slow down.
They regularly ignore the injunctions. So motor bike riders regularly crash, especially in wet weather.)
This day I'm talking about is fortunately dry. I'm keeping up a good speed, but well within the limit. I don't want to dawdle,
because I know that it can annoy those people following. Sure enough, that day, there is a car a few
metres behind me, pressing hard,
trying to get past.
He seems in a bit of a hurry, so, as I want to be helpful, I
go as fast as I can (or, strictly speaking, as fast as we are both allowed). He doesn't care about that, he just wants to get ahead. Not surprisingly, he seizes the first chance he can
get. As we come down round a bend, he swings out and hammers past me,
his engine racing. He didn't judge it very well. The road ahead seemed clear for a while, but a car comes round the bend ahead of us, and my overtaker has to pull in abruptly in order to avoid a collision.
Firstly, he took a chance, an unnecessary risk, simply in order to get ahead. It doesn't help his journey. A mile further on is a junction and I caught him up there. Slightly further on are traffic lights, and he was forced to stop there too. So, simply because he didn't like his position on the road behind me he put all our lives at risk. If he
had crashed his car, it might have caused me to come off the road
too, plus the people in the car coming towards us. The slightest misjudgement could have been fatal. Being in pole position didn't speed up his journey because it's such a winding road that he couldn't build up enough speed to really get ahead of me. That was a mistake.
Still, let's be fair. He had a car that looked impressive. It was more modern than mine, and made all the right noises. Surely he was entitled to
race it? Not if his bad driving put our lives at risk. Second, not if he broke the law, i.e. the speed limits, which were clearly marked and surely there for all our sakes. Anyway, let's think about that. Do we know it was his car? It might have belonged to his employer. Would his boss have encouraged him to hammer his vehicle, knowing it would shorten the serviceable life of the car? What if more likely the car belonged to the bank? Yes, we don't like to think about it, but it's a fact that when we 'buy' things on credit then they don't actually belong to us, not until they're paid off. 'His' car might be yet another consumer possession that the man was able to use, but hadn't quite paid for yet and therefore didn't actually own.
Fourthly, why was he in such a hurry anyway? Now, his employer might be involved at this stage. Maybe he had given the man orders about being at such-and-such a place, to meet a certain person at such a time. Me, I was ambling along because it was early
afternoon. I had fulfilled my appointments for the day and was heading home. (The joys of self-employment!) So, our 'boy racer', in his brand new car, isn't a person to be envied all that much, if his
time is not his own, and he is
'racing' to perform business that won't actually make him rich and is someone else's priority.
What a disappointment! I may be guessing, but I think that young man in his shiny car was pretty full of himself. He was gunning the engine and assuming that other drivers were envying him, his flash motor and his fast-paced lifestyle. He would be horrified to
hear that observers were, in reality, feeling sorry for him, the stresses placed upon him and the way he was wasting his time and energy. Sound familiar? How many of us want to be admired? There's an obvious way to get that. Just go out and do something worthwhile. It might be difficult, of course. But don't expect that you can take the easy way out and simply show off your glossy possessions for the populace in order to earn their admiration automatically. Their pity, maybe, but driving fast cars recklessly, as part of a non-stop, busy lifestyle, is simply a sign of bad time-keeping. Nothing to admire there.
Mike Scantlebury is an Internet Author, with books, stories and self-help material to his credit. He currently lives in Manchester, England, home to a famous soccer team called Manchester United and many
fine singers like Morrisey and Graham Nash. Check out further details at his Information site. Try
http://www.mikescantlebury.info
Bones For Your Dog - Delicious Treat Or A Deadly Snack?
There
is a difference
of opinion among canine experts as to whether bones should be given to
a dog raw, cooked, hard, or soft,
and even whether
they should be given at all. On one point, however, there is total agreement, never
give a dog splintering bones from
chicken, pork, fowl,
and rabbit, (although chicken bones that have been cooked in a
pressure cooker until they are very soft can be quite nourishing and safe).
A marrow bone is the traditional symbol of a treat
for a dog, and he obviously appreciates it.
It may be too big and hard
for small dogs. In fact, large breeds generally handle bones much better than small ones. Bones that are mostly
cartilage, such as spinal and shoulder bones of veal, knuckle bones, and soft rib bones, are good chewing material that can be
entirely consumed.
The real danger is intestinal compaction, especially in small dogs, if the masticated bone has not been mixed with other residue in the dog's stomach.
A small amount should cause no trouble if it is given right after a meal. Chop and steak bones are more dangerous. Careful eaters simply clean off the meat and fat, but greedy gobblers run the risk of internal injury from jagged bone
splinters. The same is true of a leg of lamb bone.
What is the best policy to follow with a dog of your own? A teething puppy between four and six months of age should always have a bone, real or imitation, to chew on. You might give an
adult dog a suitable bone as on
occasional treat - for example, once a week. It will give him enormous pleasure, will help to keep his teeth clean and free from tartar, and will occupy him for several
hours. But a nylon bone offers the same advantages
without the risk!
Randy Jones and his
partner Brent Jones have been in the pet industry for a long time.
Recently they formed
http://Joncopets.com.On the site, customers can shop for the latest dog collars and more for their best friend.